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We are the Agency for Social Innovation

For over 20 years, Social Impact has been developing products and services that contribute towards securing future viability and social equity. Social Impact GmbH is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1994 under the name ‘iq consult’. Since then, Social Impact has been instrumental in designing and implementing innovative qualifications and start-up support for socially disadvantaged groups.

Start-up Consultancy

Social Impact provides expert start-up consultancy. To date, several thousand companies have been set up with the support of Social Impact. For several years, Social Impact has focused on supporting social start-ups that use their ideas to solve social challenges in an entrepreneurial way. Social start-ups are given grants that fund up to eight months of professional consultancy, coaching, workshops and co-working workplaces. Social Impact also offers foundation programs for special target groups (migrants, young unemployed people and people with disabilities).

Social Impact Labs

Since 2011, Social Impact GmbH, which is a non-profit organization, has been developing labs offering the start-up programs. There are already Social Impact labs in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Duisburg, Stuttgart und Potsdam. The labs provide scope for co-working, networking and events in addition to the programs already mentioned.

Excellent

Our services have won many awards from, for example, BMAS, BMWi, The German Council for Sustainable Development, the EU, the OECD and the initiative “Germany - Land of Ideas”. CEO Norbert Kunz was, for example, made an Ashoka Fellow and won the 2010 Social Entrepreneur of the Year award by the Schwab Foundation.

Social Impact has a staff of about 70 and is sponsored by well-known companies and foundations (such as SAP, the KfW Foundation, the Deutsche Bank Foundation, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, the Professor Otto Beisheim Foundation, Franz Haniel & Cie. GmbH, the Drosos Foundation and the Telefonica Foundation).

Sponsors

Without our sponsors, it would not be possible for Social Impact to offer its diverse range of services. They have supported our programs financially and by providing human resources, as SAP has done through its mentoring program which forms part of Social Impact Start. They are what make our programs possible to implement.

Partners

We work with our partners to make social and inclusive entrepreneurship a reality in Germany. They help by providing know-how, pro bono services, content and financial contributions to put sustainable structures in place.

Advisory Board

The advisory board is a network of clever minds. They plan ahead with our Social Impact programs and inject experience from a wide range of industries and sectors. The network brings together representatives from the business community, academia, foundations and the media.